Effective Adjunctive Use of Pergolide for Cognitive Impairment and Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia

Hamamatsu University

Status: Suspended

Conditions: Schizophrenia; Negative Symptoms; Cognitive Impairments

Treatments: Drug: Pergolide (drug)

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00197483

01T-080

Details and patient eligibility

About

Dopamine has been closely associated with prefrontal function. The hypothesis that a lower dopaminergic activity is associated with negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunction observed in the patients of schizophrenia is of a heuristic value in guiding research in this area. This hypothesis led us to test whether pergolide, a D1/D2 agonist, could improve negative symptoms and cognitive impairments prevailing in most patients with schizophrenia. This double-blind placebo controlled study will investigate the remedial effect of pergolide on negative symptoms and cognitive impairments in schizophrenia.

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 50 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Patients

• Were age 18-50 years, met the DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia
• Were treated with a stable dose of risperidone, raging 2 to 6mg, for more than 8 weeks
• Had a score ≥15 on negative subscale items in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS)
• Had a minimum period of symptom stability, defined as no more than 20% change on consecutive ratings on PANSS for at lease 4 weeks

Exclusion criteria

• Had a history of medical condition or drug treatment that may have affected cognitive performance
• Had a history of other psychiatric disorders